Successfully attained the presidency of the owners’ community in a building located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, dismissed the administrator to solely manage the accounts, diverted 88,000 euros from this community into an account belonging to a front company registered under his name, misappropriated funds and forged signatures and documents in an attempt to conceal this unlawful enrichment.
The judiciary has sentenced a 51-year-old man to four and a half years in prison for a persistent crime of improper appropriation as well as another ongoing crime of falsification in commercial documents after pocketing exactly 87,790 euros from the residents of a building in Residential Anaga, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, over a minimum of three years between April 2015 and June 2018.
Furthermore, the convicted individual must repay every penny to the homeowners affected by his misconduct. According to Rodolfo Rodríguez Montenegro, the lawyer representing the victims of this financial fraud and with over 20 years of expertise, connected to the office Reyes and Montenegro based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Adeje, this constitutes the highest amount in a conviction for improper appropriation affecting a building community in the Canary Islands.
In a initial ruling, the fifth section of the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife found the defendant guilty of both offences. An appeal was filed, seeking the nullification of the judgment in front of the criminal division of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has now upheld the sentence issued by the Provincial Court last year
This court has recently dismissed the arguments presented in a ruling, signed on the 7th, which confirms “in all its aspects” the conviction of the Provincial Court. The convicted individual now has the option to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The incident originated on June 30, 2011. On that day, DP was appointed President of the Community of Owners and subsequently expelled the administrator citing “financial difficulties.”
Shortly after, he appointed another individual as administrator who, according to the rulings, “never accepted or held the position nor had any ties to the owners’ community.” This enabled the President to manage the economic activities of the property without any oversight, a function that should have been performed by the administrator.
On July 5, 2013, the president opened a current account with a banking institution in the name of the community. It received payments and dues from the owners. “Motivated by the same intention of illicit financial gain,” as noted in the judicial ruling from the Provincial Court, the man began withdrawing various sums of money from this bank account without the community’s knowledge, using cheques.
The president of the convicted community consistently aimed to achieve illicit financial gain
A total of 57 cheques were involved. It started with one for 182 euros, the lowest amount, but the sums quickly escalated to reach 4,672 euros, the highest value. The amount diminished again in the final batch but not below 400 euros.
The now-convicted individual channelled these cheques to a company focused on environmental consultancy, of which he was the sole administrator where all the funds were deposited for his personal gain, unbeknownst to the homeowners of the Anaga Residential building.
On those cheques, DP forged his own signature and added another FORGED signature of the fictitious administrator, the one mentioned in the documents, who had no knowledge of being used in this manner or maintained any relationship with the property owners.
To conceal the funds from the homeowners, the president also manipulated the minutes from the General Meetings held on November 6, 2014, February 25, 2016, and July 27, 2018, “falsely stating the involvement of the alleged administrator” whose signature he had forged “to simulate participation by the non-existent secretary in those same meetings.”
To further expand his financial fraud, DP, via his front company, crafted false invoices that purportedly represented services for the community of owners
To complete the financial deception, DP, through his front company, generated fictitious invoices that claimed to substantiate the community of owners for services and works that were never executed or approved by the meetings.
The judges of the fifth chamber of the Provincial Court, Francisco Mulero, Lucía Machado, and Fernando Paredes, in a ruling that has now been fully confirmed by the Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, have established that DP is guilty of misappropriation and documentary forgery.
He has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison, just six months less than what the Prosecutor’s Office requested, and ordered to reimburse the community of owners the sum of 87,790 euros. Additionally, he must pay a fine of 6,000 euros and cover the legal costs.
